Mele Bulls will enter this competition as the defending champions and a crowd favourite and Power House and Mighty Saints who were the rookie teams last year, now have experience and will surely be a threat to other teams. Ifira Black Birds, Paama Sharks, APT Dolphins and North Efate Bush Pigs will have to fight extra hard this year to prove their worth as the senior teams in this competition.

Women’s club trainings have started and training days are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00pm to 5:00pm. Registration is also open to anyone interested in playing or trying out cricket.

After the Women’s B&P T20 Club Championship, the U15 Club Championship will kick off followed by the Men’s B&P T20 Club Championship on the 7th of April, Women’s U19 Club Championship on the 21st of April, Men’s 40 over Club Championship on the 9th of June, Independence Cup on the 14th of July, Women’s T20 Club Championship on the 18th of August and the U19 Club championship on the 15th of September.

Club competitions in Santo will kick off on the 10th of March with the T20 Club Championship followed by the Women’s U19 Club Championship on the 28th of April, the Independence Cup on the 16th of June, U17 Club Championship on the 4th of August and finishing with theT20 Club Championship on the 29th of September.

North Efate and Northwest Efate will have competitions of their own starting with the U17’s hard ball competition followed by the Independence Cup which will also be held in Tanna and ending with the Community Cup.

Vanuatu Cricket is looking forward to another successful club cricket year and competitions are open and registration is free to anyone who is interested to participate.

Visit our office at Independence Park to register to join a club and follow us on Facebook at ‘Vanuatu Cricket (@vanuatucricketassociation)’ or @vanuatucricket_association on Instagram and @vanuatu_cricket on twitter for more information and to keep updated with our programs and competitions.

Vanuatu Cricket would also like to acknowledge their sponsors for choosing to support the development of cricket in Vanuatu resulting in a higher standard of cricket each year.

Thursday the 25th of January 2018 marked another milestone for Vanuatu Cricket with the handing over of facilities from the CCECC (China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation) to Vanuatu Cricket Association which was witnessed by many present on the afternoon.

The handover was witnessed by dignitaries from CCECC, representatives from Vanuatu Government and non-government bodies, sponsors, media personnel, VCA staff, national players and members of the public.

The facilities have been used as the Van2017 offices and information centre during the Mini Games and Vanuatu Cricket is fortunate to receive ownership of these facilities and will now be using them as the high performance and elite development centre.

President of the VCA, Mark Stafford, said that this is a dream comes true for Vanuatu Cricket’s high performance and development team because it will provide them with their own space to work, train and focus on the development of elite athletes which will include literacy skills and other valuable skills.

“First of all I would like to say a very big thank you to CCECC on behalf of the VCA for providing us with these facilities which will undoubted benefit the association and athletes in the long run with cricket skills and post cricket skills,” Said Stafford.

“Having this centre will encourage our athletes to apply themselves more in all aspects of the sport, add to the pathways that VCA is developing and this will include umpires and scorers as well as players and be a catalyst to all of our young men and women’s aspirations in sport and in life.”

The afternoon was also dignified with the presence of the vice president of CCECC, Mr Chen Si Chang, who expressed that CCECC is honoured to play a significant role in establishing the facilities which will enable the Vanuatu Cricket Association to produce the best teams, players and officials in Vanuatu.

“This VCA high-performance center is more than just a building, it is a center where new cricketers will be discovered and shaped to be the best players or the best teams to represent Vanuatu in tournaments locally and internationally,” said Mr Chang.

“I truly believe It is an inherent right for every young sports star to have access to a decent training centre and receive quality training, to be able to perform to their best on the field.”

Mr Chang also expressed that he does not fully agree with the notion that knowledge is power because the CCECC believes that knowledge is a tool and not a trophy to be kept on a display unit and athletes who will be using the centre will need to be fully equipped with knowledge.

“The young boys and girls who will be fortunate to use this center will need to be fully equipped with knowledge so that we are sure that the future of Vanuatu Cricket is built on solid individuals who will represent Vanuatu around the world, making it a place where champions and heroes will be made. And that ladies and Gentlemen CCECC is proud to a part of,” concluded Chang.

The future of Vanuatu cricket looks more promising with this high performance and elite development center and the VCA is looking forward to utilizing these facilities and bring the development of Vanuatu Cricket to a higher standard.

Vanuatu Cricket would like to acknowledge CCECC for their hard work in building these facilities and handing them over to the VCA, the Vanuatu Government for their support, Van2017 for allowing the VCA to have access to these facilities, past and current sponsors for choosing to support the development of Vanuatu Cricket, the media, all Vanuatu cricket supporters, families and friends and all VCA staff and members of the VCA board.

Vanuatu national women’s cricket team captain, Selina Solman, is currently in Adelaide on player placement with the Southern District Stingrays under the proud sponsorship of FairBreak Gobal in support of gender equality.

FairBreak Global is an organization that aims to create opportunities for women in sports, business, media and education to achieve gender equality and they along with Vanuatu Cricket and the Southern District Stingrays are supporting Solman in boosting her cricketing career.

Solman is the first national women’s cricketer from Vanuatu to go on an international player placement and play premier first grade cricket in Australia and she will be coached by former Vanuatu Cricket volunteer, Llewelyn Hoy and Vanuatu national men’s captain, Andrew Mansale.

She has been selected based on her experience and skills which has set her not only as the captain of the national women’s side but also as the leading player in the team.

Shane Deitz, a former cricket player for the Southern District Stingrays and Vanuatu Cricket’s national head coach, said that Solman will benefit from this experience but at the same time she is carrying the huge responsibility of showing other cricket clubs and people around the world that there is a lot of talent in Vanuatu.

“This opportunity means that she (Selina) will have some great games on grass pitches and play against some state and international players. This will give her experience and Andrew Mansale, our Men’s captain is also at the club and will help her work on her game whilst there too,” said Deitz.

The experience Solman will gain will also benefit the rest of the national players in Vanuatu as she plays one of the leading roles in the team which means that she is tasked with sharing whatever she will learn during her time in Australia with the team once she is back.

“We (Vanuatu Cricket) need to have more girls go on placements like this because it will allow them to experience playing on turf wickets and playing conditions that are similar to the conditions they will face when playing international matches which is why Selina being there is so important,” said national women’s head coach, Eddie Mansale.

While Solman is in Australia paving the way for other Vanuatu women’s cricketers, Deitz expressed that players who remain and are training in Vanuatu need to step up their game and improve as cricketers in order to be ready for these opportunities when they are presented to them as being on placement can either go really well or really bad for a player.

“I would love more players to have these opportunities but two things need to happen. First, the girls here improve to a certain level and show me they are ready as it can go badly too if the player isn’t ready and will stop further players getting those opportunities. Secondly, it costs money from us and the clubs in Australia so both sides need to fund it and see benefits for it. The clubs in Australia like us have strict budgets so we have to try and work together,” concluded Deitz.

These opportunities are great female development for Vanuatu Cricket and in accordance with the aim of FairBreak global, promotes gender equality in the sport of cricket specifically in Vanuatu.

The men’s East Asia-Pacific (EAP) team have finished their best ever Australian Country Cricket Championship (Toyota ACCC) with six wins out of 10 matches across both T20 and One Day (50 overs) format.

Jason Kila (214 runs in 10 matches), Doriga Kipling (211 runs in 20 matches) and Nalin Nipiko (175 runs in 10 matches) were the top three run scorers for the EAP men’s team in the championships.The team made up of a contingent of Vanuatu national cricketers have settled for a fourth place finish overall after a tough loss to New South Wales country in their last match caused their net run rate to drop.

EAP Men’s Team (blue/green) in action against South Australia CountryPhoto Credit: Czarsportz

Jelany Chilia (14 wickets in 10 matches), Nalin Nipiko (13 wickets in 10 matches) and Patrick Matautaava (10 wickets in 8 matches) were the best performed bowlers for the team across both formats of the game.

Nalin Nipiko was the best performer from Vanuatu with both bat and ball with a total of 175 runs scored in 10 matches and 10 wickets in 10 matches.

This experience will prepare Papua New Guinea (PNG) national players and Vanuatu national players as both countries are looking forward to competitions in the coming months with PNG heading to Zimbabwe in March for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers and Vanuatu will be heading to Malaysia in April to take part in the ICC World Cricket League Division 4.

In the women’s division, the EAP women’s team who were the former champions, finished in fifth place after a tough eight days of competition set them back from defending their title.

Brenda Tau (162 runs in 7 matches), Pauke Siaka (148 runs in 7 matches), and Sibona Jimmy (62 runs in 6 matches) were the top run scorers for the EAP women’s team in the championship while Kaia Arua (8 wickets in 7 matches), Konio Oala (6 wickets in 7 matches) and Leimauri Chilia (4 wickets in 7 matches) were the best performers with the ball for the team.

Vanuatu Cricket has farewelled 12 of its national cricketers and two national head coaches this week as they head to Perth, Western Australia, to participate in the Toyota Australian Country Cricket Championship (ACCC).

The ACCC is an annual event which brings together some of the best cricket talents from different states in Australia and an EAP team made up of some of the best cricket talents from the East Asia-Pacific region.

This year, the competition is hosted in Geraldton, Perth, and cricket will be played in the T20 format in the women’s division and T20 and One Day format in the men’s division over the next ten days.

The team Vanuatu representatives consists of eight male cricketers and four female cricketers, who have been selected to play in the East-Asia Pacific (EAP) team along with national cricketers from PNG, and Samoa.

Vanuatu Cricket’s High Performance manager and National Head coach, Shane Deitz, will be assisting Cricket Fiji’s head coach, Joe Rika, who has been selected to be the head coach for the EAP men’s team while Vanuatu national women’s coach, Eddie Mansale, has been selected as the EAP women’s head coach.

This competition will benefit both the men and women’s EAP team as Vanuatu National Men’s Cricket team will be heading to Malaysia to compete in the World Cricket League Division Four in April this year and the PNG national women’s team (PNG Lewa’s) as they prepare to compete in the Women’s World T20 Qualifiers in West Indies later this year.

The men’s EAP has since played their first two matches, defeating Queensland Country in the first round and losing to South Australia Country in the second round of the T20 game format on Friday the 5th of January.

They will then play New South Wales Country and Western Australia on Saturday the 6th of January and their final match in T20 format will be on the 7th against Victoria Country.

The women’s ACCC competition will kick off on Sunday the 7th of January and the women’s EAP team will take on South Australia Country in their opening match.